The 15th Amendment—a Moderate VictorySection. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Section. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Progress towards and against Reconstruction The Conservative Strategy against Reconstruction Republicans wary of taking final step of readmission Johnson’s Impeachment Trial March 1868

Reconstructed States --7 States readmitted by June 1868 --Role of black state legislators and public office-holders --Black politicians: characteristics --Role of Freedwomen --Centrality of Republican Party --White Allies: "carpetbaggers," "scalawags"

Votes on 1866 Civil Rights ActOverturning Johnson's VetoEvidence? Former Confederates elected to state office fall 1865 To protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their Vindication

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

That all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.Political mobilization of southern BlacksFreedmen's Conventions

Black elected officialsGive new Black voters and loyalwhites the opportunity to remake southern state governments Provide former slaves with theeconomic basis for political freedomRegister votersnew constitutional conventionselect new state officialsratify 14th amendmentapply for readmission to CongressAlso passed in March 1867:*Tenure of Office Act*Command of the Army ActPrepare freedmen for citizenshipThe Army & the FB1867-1877: Reconstructing the SouthUnion League: Voter registration and educationNew Constitutional ConventionsNew State GovernmentsWhite allies caricatured:"Carpetbaggers" & "Scalawags"A new presidential politics: 1868 election of U. S. Grant15th Amendment:Passed by Congress 1869; ratified 1870

Ku Klu KlanCapitalist expansion in the South:Reconstruction-era investments in Railroads

1870-1871: Enforcement ActsThe "Mississippi Plan"

1876 Presidential election & 1877 Compromise

Why call it "Redemption"??Johnson's 1868 Impeachment TrialSection 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.1871 Mississippi KKKWhat did new constitutions do?most progressive in nationexpanded electorate

The Rise of Jim CrowMAPS:Sharecropping:From compromise to peonageSegregation

ERODING RIGHTS:RECONSTRUCTION & THE JUDICIAL BRANCH

1873: Slaughter-house cases narrow 14th Amendment1876: US vs. Cruikshank undermines Klan Act & Enforcement Acts1896: Plessy v. Ferguson establishes legality of segregation until 1954Disenfranchisement--until Voting Rights Act of 1965Who would have citizenship rights at the end of the war? How would the Confederate states be readmitted to the Union?Which branch of government would oversee the process? Who would determine the rules?How would the southern economy be reorganized? How former slaves and former slave owners become participants in a free labor society?What would black freedom mean? Would it include citizenship rights? Civil rights? Political power?BOTH BILLS--CR & FB-- VETOED BY JOHNSONMake rights veto-proofNew Families, new family politicsAccess to Health care: hospitals, physicians, medicinesSchoolsNew labor relationsShifting away from Wash., D.C.: Former Slaves in the South Define and Defend FreedomTransform the South through enfranchisement and economic powerEncourage this transformation with the newly-expanded powers of governmentReconstruction as a practical problem rather than an opportunity to impose social revolution on the SouthEqual rights before the law the gold standard of changeREPORT BY A FB AGENTUnion League MeetingSection 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such MALE CITIZENS shall bear to the whole number of MALE CITIZENS